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| Samaritans observing Passover on Mount Gerizim in 2006. |
A Brief History Of
The Samaritans
.
Margaret Mowczko
At
the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry, the land of Samaria was situated between
the regions of Galilee in the north and Judea in the south.
Jews
travelling between Galilee and Judea would take the longer, six-day journey
along the Jordan River valley rather than taking a shorter, more direct route
through Samaria.
The
Jews avoided the Samaritans because of their bitter history.
ISRAEL
SPLITS INTO TWO KINGDOMS
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| Map of Israel and Judah, showing Samaria and Jerusalem. |
The
northern tribes of Israel were collectively called Israel, and their capital
city was Samaria (1 Kings 16:24).
The
southern tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Simeon were collectively called Judah,
and their capital city was Jerusalem.
A
distance of 50kms separated the cities of Jerusalem and Samaria.
THE
FALL OF ISRAEL
All
the kings of Israel, without exception, were unfaithful and disobedient to God.
They embraced idolatrous religions and were extremely wicked.
After
repeated prophetic warnings about coming disaster — unless Israel repented, the
northern kingdom of Israel was overpowered by the Assyrians in around 724 BCE.
Many
of the Israelites who had survived the attack were taken to foreign lands where
they were assimilated into the native populations (2 Kings 17:5-6; 17:22-41).
These
northern tribes are referred to as the “lost tribes of Israel”.
However,
a few groups of Israelite families retained their ancestral integrity.
The
Assyrians sent five eastern tribes to live in Northern Israel. These five
tribes brought with them their own foreign religions and customs.
The
tribes were sent with the purpose of diminishing the Israelite identity and
culture.
The
eastern foreigners intermarried with the remaining, much depleted Israelite
population.
This
hybrid people group was the beginning of the Samaritans.
The
Assyrian Empire fell to the Egyptians in 612 BCE.
The
Egyptians had already taken control of Samaria in 610 after taking the life of
the Judean king, Josiah, who had himself hoped to conquer Israel.
The
Egyptians were subsequently defeated by the Babylonians, and Samaria became a
minor capital city of the Babylonian empire from 605 to 562 BCE.
THE
FALL OF JUDAH
In
586 BCE, the southern kingdom of Judah was also conquered by the Babylonians (2 Chronicles 36:15ff), and the whole of Israel and Judah came to be known as Samaria.
Many
Jews were exiled from their homeland and taken captive into Babylon for seventy
years, as prophesied by Jeremiah (Jeremiah
25:11-12; 2 Chronicles 36:21).
The
Jewish population was taken in several stages to Babylon. It seems that only
the poorest, sickest, and least skilled were ultimately left behind.
These
remaining people intermarried with their northern neighbours with the result
that foreign beliefs and customs mixed with Jewish beliefs and customs.
THE
RETURNING JEWS
The
Jews were mostly treated well in Babylon.
While
some Jews lamented their captivity in a foreign land (see Psalm 137),
others became established in their new communities.
When
the Persian King Cyrus was divinely led to allow the Jews to return seventy
years later (Ezra 1:1ff), only the most devout Jews returned to Jerusalem with
the purpose of rebuilding the city and its temple.
The
Babylonian exile had been a punishment for Judah’s unfaithfulness to God, and
the Jews had learned from it.
The
returned Jews were zealous for God and righteous living, and, with some
exceptions, they never again engaged in blatant idolatry.
The
returning Jews were keen to rebuild the Jerusalem temple so that they could
worship God in the way he had prescribed.
The
Samaritans offered to help the Jews in rebuilding the temple but this offer was
scornfully rejected (Ezra 4:1-5).
The
Jews of the post-exilic period were also zealous for the scriptures.
Scribes
copied them, and synagogues and schools were established to teach from them.
This
real repentance over past idolatry, combined with their fervour for scripture,
would result in an over-scrupulous interpretation of scripture and fanatically
detailed religious observances by various Jewish sects such as the Pharisees
and the Qumran community.
THE
SAMARITANS
Meanwhile,
the Samaritans had developed their own version of Judaism.
The
Samaritans still believed in the God of Israel, but they worshipped at Mount
Gerizim (instead of Jerusalem) with their own adapted worship practices.
The
Samaritans also had their own Pentateuch in Aramaic, which differed in places
from the Hebrew Pentateuch.
To
this day, the Samaritans do not accept the poetic and prophetic books of the
Hebrew scriptures.
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| Mt Ebal on the right, Gerizim on the left. |
This
caused tension and hostility between the Jews and the Samaritans.
The
Jews ultimately destroyed the Samaritan temple in 128/9 BCE. Nevertheless, the
Samaritan religious community still survives today.
Most
Jews regarded the Samaritans as ignorant, superstitious, and outside of God’s
favour and mercy.
The
Samaritans, however, were still very much part of God’s plans as shown in the
fourth chapter of John’s gospel where Jesus brings the good news to Sychar, a
Samaritan village.
Moreover, Jesus specifically mentions Samaria in Acts
1:8 where he tells his disciples: “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and
in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Christian
churches were soon established there (Acts
9:31 cf. Acts 8:1, 4-5ff; 9:31; 15:3 CEB).
FOOTNOTES
The word “Jew” is derived from
the word “Judah”.
The Pentateuch consists of the
first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and
Deuteronomy. The Samaritans reject all other books of the Old Testament.
The parable of the Good
Samaritan presents the Samaritan in a very favourable light, but we must be
mindful that Jesus chose the figure of the Samaritan for effect in his story
(Luke 10:25ff). The thankful, healed Samaritan leper is also presented in a
favourable light (Luke 17:11-19). The Samaritan woman, and indeed her whole
village of Sychar, are presented as people ready to accept that Jesus is the
Messiah (John 4:4-42).
Margaret Mowczko
Marg Mowczko lives north of
Sydney, Australia, in a house filled with three generations of family. She
strongly believes that if we are in Christ we are part of the New Creation and
part of a community where old social paradigms of hierarchies and caste or
class systems have no place (2 Cor.
5:17; Gal. 3:28). Marg has a BTh from the Australian College of
Ministries and an MA with a specialisation in early Christian and Jewish
studies from Macquarie University.
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